In Istanbul, someone is provided stray and feral cats – community cats – with customized dry food dispensers. I am not sure if the dispensers also provide water.
“The Turkish people are known for their love for cats, and their kindness towards them..
The facility was specially designed to provide food and water for homeless cats and dogs 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. This idea is so blessed and beautiful. And it deserves recognition….” (Zina Michaelov on Facebook).
Here is a photo of a cat using one of these dry cat food dispensers (Note: I have presumed there is more than one. Am I correct?). Also are these dispensers for cats and dogs? If so, there is no dry food that I know which is suitable for both. Dogs are more flexible with respect to food than cats. It might be pure cat food. Just a thought.
Here is a video of Istanbul street cats. Istanbul is the largest city in Turkey.
Will the dry food cat dispensers be around for the indefinite future? They might but I am not sure that they will. I wonder if eventually Turkish people will become more Westernized whereupon they may start to become irritated by community cats.
I have never seen this sort of formal cat food distribution on the street. I believe it is unique to Turkey. Who is providing the food dispenser? Initially, I thought it was the local government but it may be a private organisation.
This is one of the only times I have seen dry cat food used appropriately. It is able to last for a long time. As mentioned I wonder if water provided too? It needs to be. Dry cat food can cause dehydration and cats don’t drink enough water to compensate. This is one of the downsides of this cat food dispenser. It is still better than no food, obviously.
What do you think would happen if there were cat food dispensers, on the pavement, like this in Europe, the UK or North America? Would someone vandalise the unit and steal the food? It may happen in Turkey for all I know. It would certainly worry me if I was involved in placing these feeders in a city. That said it is a very humane thing to do. It just needs to be part of a trap-neuter-return programme.
This is the Facebook page and my thanks to Harvey Harrison for telling me about this.
With so many communities seeming to go out of their way the kill and abuse cats in the most horrific way seeing the Istanbul cats has reinstated my faith in human kindness. A lot of countries could certainly learn a lot from Istanbul; living proof that we can live in perfect harmony with cats.